REAL LIFE NEWS: NON-PLANET PLUTO GETS A CONSOLATION PRIZEby HazedPoor old Pluto was demoted last year when it was deemed to no longer be a planet, but just a mere dwarf planet. What a come-down! Now, it's been granted a consolation prize because the International Astronomical Union - the organization that stripped it of its status - has decided that dwarf planets which fall into a new category of trans-Neptunian objects will henceforth be called "plutoids". Trans-Neptunian means they orbit in the vicinity of what is now the final planet, Neptune. This new group is very small: just Pluto and Eris fall into the new plutoid club, although astronomers expect to find new bodies to include in the future. The biggest known asteroid, Ceres, is considered to a dwarf planet but it doesn't count as a plutoid because it's not trans-Neptunian... the asteroid belt lies between Mars and Jupiter. It sounds to me as if astronomers are rather tying themselves in knots trying to put everything into neat categories! |